result if you’ll apply your understanding of
common tones as you choose how to position
the notes of each chord in your right hand. By
the way, the way you choose to distribute the
notes of any chord on your keyboard is called
a voicing. The voicing you choose for any
chord is important, and the way chord voicings
connect is significant too.
So, recognizing that the note A is a common
tone between the D and the A chords, you
would keep the note A where it is as you play
the D chord when the A chord comes around.
Here’s the resulting right hand piano part:
CHORD TOP NOTE NOTE BELOW NOTE BELOW
D A F# D
A A E C#
Two very important aspects of modern keyboard
playing are seen in this simple example. First,
the top note doesn’t change as you move from
the D chord to the A chord. Second, the notes
below the unchanging top note only move to a
neighboring note rather than skipping to a note
further away.
Each of the chords in our progression have
three notes, so each of them could be used
as the top note of your voicing. Here’s a chart
showing the movement between chords that
would result if you put the note D on top.
CHORD TOP NOTE NOTE BELOW NOTE BELOW
D D A F#
A C# A E
Now the common tone, A, is in the middle note
of your right-hand voicing. There’s nothing right
or wrong about this voicing. What’s most often
heard in modern keyboard voicings, though, is
playing the common tone on top of your righthand
voicing.
This lengthy explanation of how to build
common tone chord voicings might seem
intimidating and hard to apply in real time
during a worship service. With practice you’ll
find that common tones naturally land on top
of your keyboard voicings. You may discover,
too, that it can be very effective to let a note
stay on top of your voicing through a chord
progression even if that note isn’t part of each
chord involved. For example, in the chorus of
“Who You Say I Am”, the 2 nd and 4 th line say:
Bm A G D
I’m a child of God, yes I am
The note D is a common tone between the B
minor, G and D chords. So, that note will work
well on top of your right-hand voicing. Keep
that note D on top even when you play the A
chord below it. The resulting voicing has a nice
dissonance as the D is heard with the C# right
below it. Like this:
CHORD TOP BELOW BELOW BELOW
Bm D B F#
A D C# A E
G D B G
D D A F#
Give yourself some time to explore this concept
of common tones at your instrument. As a
keyboard player, you are probably playing pad
sounds often, and using common tones will
transform your pad parts. One of the most
significant things you’ll discover if you study
pad parts on modern recordings is that the top
note of the pad part rarely (if ever) changes.
Growing comfortable with keeping common
tones on top of your right hand voicings is
an essential skill for a keyboard player in
modern worship.
Ed Kerr
Ed Kerr lives in Seattle with his family. He serves as
worship arts director at First Free Methodist Church,
teaches keyboards in Paul Baloche’s leadworship
workshops and is a clinician with Yamaha’s House
of Worship. He also manages the Yamaha Worship
Facebook group and invites you to join the group.
www.KerrTunes.com
August 2020
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